so, in the end, after a couple more days testing… I resolved settling on NAS > Mac mini > Aries > USB Regen > 2Qute
I’m still getting the occasional hiccup (two or three in 4-5 hours of playback) though
would really like to determine if culprit is indeed the Audiophilleo SE I pulled from the chain or… just 2Qute’s s/pdif
but only device I have that can output 384KHz and DSD on s/pdif is the Audiophilleo itself 
I just connected my NUC running ROCK to 2Qute and having same drops when upsampling to DSD64 and DSD128
This can never be guaranteed to work. SPDIF standard only allows 24bit 192khz samplerate maximum. That would include DSD64 presented as DoP though. Not even digital balanced (AES/EBU) guarantees more 24/192.
Hmm, it either has issues or it doesn’t. Light issues are still issues, dont you think?
To me it’s quite obvious that Chords decoding of DSD leaves something to be desired. We have examples of Mojo, Hugo, 2Qute that all have problems playing back streams of DSD, all in this thread.
The question remains though, is the combination of Roon and Chord the problem here?
Or is it the usage of upsampling?
I wasn’t upsampling: just playing DSDs (dsf) 64 or 128
Roon team has a Chord Hugo in house: would be nice, if/when they have time, they perform some test and report 
I agree! Surely they have plenty of work do, but it would be nice to hear from @support if they have any suggestions or knowledge on the matter.
When you experience the hiccups, does the light on the Chord stay white, or does it change to another colour briefly?
the USB/Optical/Coaxial light? No idea as I can’t see it from my listening position
the “Bitrate light”, though, does not blink/change colour
will try again DSDs, now that RAAT is using TCP instead of UDP, to see if dropouts are still there
In my case, the bitrate light changes from white to something else during a dropout. I had the same thought as you and retested now we’re using TCP, but still have the same issue. I think I’m just going to leave Roon transcoding to 352.8kHz and not worry.
Same thought here, but i also had issues with drop outs yesterday evening.
I havent been able to see the sample rate light flicker though.
And for some reason i am suspicious that this might be sensitivity to EFI/RMI from my Mojo’s part. I can, sometimes, start playback of DSD256 and have one or two glitches at the very beginning of the first song.
Then all goes smoothly for a few songs, right up until i decide to access a new site, in a new tab, on my iPad. Most of these times = Drop out
just happened while playing a DSD 64 album and… yes: light went from white to green
so I just verified too that the move from UDP to TCP did not help 
Just installed Rock onto a 7i5 nuc. Music on Synology NAS. Nuc > SOTM-sms200 > 2qute. Having constant drop outs upsampling 44.1 flac to dsd128. Single zone and only 20000 track library, but core is still analysing files. Did anyone get to the bottom of this? @support
as I wrote in another thread, based on my tests, looks the hiccups are there only when using a “network renderer” (Auralic Aries, here)
I’m using a Netgear GS105v2 gigabit switch to connect my Mac mini, Aries and Qnap HS-251 (dedicated to music files only, just SMB service is active and only accessed by the Mac mini) plus AudioQuest Cinnamon/Vodka cables
if someone (… @support ?) can suggest a known perfectly working network setup I’m willing to give that a try, so we can at least finally rule out Chord DACs (which have no issue at all when directly connected to Mac mini’s USB)
For me hickups occur when using my MacMini as a headless Roon Bridge connected via USB to the Mojo.
(Only in DSD, have not seen any discrepancies when upsampling to PCM, even above 700khz)
The hickups does not manifest themselves when doong the exact same thing over USB into my Audiobyte Black Dragon DAC (Max DSD128 though)
so… Roon Bridge on the Mac mini, meaning Roon Core is on another machine with an ethernet connection in between?
my Chord Mojo only has very, very few hiccups at DSD 256, when connected via USB to the MIni running Roon Server. all is fine up to DSD 128
no upsampling: just native files using DoP
Yes, Roon Server on the QNAP some 10m away. All hard wired using CAT5 UTP.
I would be inclined to point the finger at the qnap performance as perhaps a primary issue.
Feel free, there are no issues on other DACs under identical circumstances… And i have plenty headroom while upsampling to DSD256 with processing speeds of around 12x
So, no, thats unlikely in my opinion.
In my scenario isssues occur when Roon, DSD and Chord is mentioned in the same sentence. Take either out, no issues.
Which actually gave me an idea, i’ll try DSD256 from JRiver on the very same MacMini and Mojo that is causing issues with Roon and DSD as a Bridge!
In that case there seems to be a long list of posts about chord DAC’s having issues. 12x looks to be good then but as you haven’t indicated the qnap specs that’s where I would have suggested to look first
Apologies, i realise i came across as dismissive of your suggestion. That was not my intent @wizardofoz!
I just tried Jriver as playback engine, upsampling to DSD128 on the Mac Mini -11 that normally acts as Roon Endpoint.
The Chord displays the same kind of hickups as before, but both DACs now suffer from smaller pops and ticks… 
And, what struck me immediately is why i have selected Roon!!! JRiver sounded awful, particularly on the Mojo, less so on the Black Dragon.
Nevertheless, going back to Roon really left my jaw at floorlevel! It’s all bits, right? Yeah, right… 
Yeah, I’m not sure it will be the NAS. My spanking new 7i5 to sotm to 2qute is still hiccuping with any dsd conversion, with processor speed at x6 (for dsd 64) and X 3.3 (for dsd 128). I wouldn’t have thought these numbers are low enough to indicate core processor is lacking, although maybe someone can enlighten me! The chord sample rate light is not switching at all in my case.